New Apple Store at the St. Louis Galleria

After having visited New York's four very large and unique Apple Stores, coming back and visiting the St. Louis Galleria Apple Store was somewhat of a letdown. The store has been reported to be the world's smallest mall Apple Store, and it was quite apparent upon entering.

The Galleria Store was known for being incredibly cramped, and one would often see many Apple employees training Mac users in the common areas around the Mall. One was lucky to be able to grab an Apple employee to simply make a quick purchase within 5 minutes of entering the store!

No more.

Now, the Apple Store inside the St. Louis Galleria is likely one of the largest, if not THE largest, Apple Stores in a mall, in the world.

Interestingly, the kiosk area outside the store (in front), which used to be a Starbucks kiosk (Starbucks has relocated across the atrium), is rumored to be a new area where people will be able to check in for Genius bar and training appointments, hang out, and use Apple's free WiFi. Right now, the area is simply empty.

There used to be one table in the store, and now there are more than ten. There used to be only about 70% of the Apple consumer product lineup on display, but now every product is displayed prominently and abundantly.

The old Genius bar had maybe two or three chairs, and two stations for helping people; the new Genius bar has something like 20 or 25 chairs, about 10 or 15 Macs, and plenty of room for helping people!

I am so happy to finally have a respectable Apple Store very near the actual city of St. Louis (West County is far, far away)! It was also nice to receive a free apple T-shirt (grey, unlike the many black ones I have collected from other store openings and midnight events), and see over 200 other Mac fanatics up before 9 a.m. to see the new store. Here's yours truly, standing in front!